featuring guest authors; crafting tips and projects; recipes from food editor and sleuthing sidekick Cloris McWerther; and decorating, travel, fashion, health, beauty, and finance tips from the rest of the American Woman editors.

Holiday Blog Hop Starting December 11th

Holiday Blog Hop

Blog Hop begins December 11th. Click on the graphic above for a schedule and list of giveaways, including a $60 Amazon gift card.

Monday, February 6, 2012

CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA-- GUEST SCRAPBOOKER MOLLIE COX BRYAN

Mollie Cox Bryan is a food writer with a penchant for murder. Her first mystery, Scrapbook of Secrets, was just released, and I’ve invited her here today to talk about scrapbooking. Read more about Mollie at her website and blog.

Mollie is giving away a copy of Scrapbook of Secrets, along with a scrapbooking kit, to one of our lucky readers today. Post a comment to be entered in the drawing. -- AP

One of the best things about being a crafter of any kind is the ability to use a skill to give a gift that has meaning—even more meaning because we make it with our own hands. I know some of the best gifts I’ve ever received were of the handmade variety. Scrapbooking is no different than quilting or knitting, in this regard. You can make any number of gifts with the scrapbooking hobby. I’ve made gift scrapbooks—one for my mom about her life, another for my niece who was getting ready to go off to college. It was full of photos of her growing up, peppered with advice from me about the college life. But it doesn’t have to be a whole book. It can be one page—suitable for framing.

To do a page like this, gather the photos, embellishments, paper, and so on, keeping the person you’re making the page about in mind. For example, for my daughter’s thirteenth birthday, she wanted to see a Broadway show. She has high hopes of pursing an acting career. So, when I went to the supply store, this is what I was attracted to. Aren’t the stars fabulous?

I liked this photo because you could see the city behind her so I tried to find paper that would suit. It’s okay to play like this with paper. Just have fun with it. When I begin a page, I often switch around to find the right paper. I didn’t like either of these:

For my taste the page turned out a little busy, but it’s perfect for her. It’s really who she is—what she likes and the page is for her.

One of the things I wanted to point out about this layout is the “journaling” piece, which in this case, is just your basic “this is what we did when Emma turned 13.” But you can get really creative with this part of it. Initially, I wanted to list 13 things I love about Emma. But the page stated to look too crowded. I hardly ever stick to my plans—it’s just the kind of crafter I am. I find that for me it’s important to have a plan as a sort of guideline in my mind—but it hardly ever works that way.

You can purchase scrapbook page frames and give this as a gift—and for my just-turned thirteen-year-old—it will hang on a wall, which will look out over her very messy room. But it will be something she might have for the rest of her life. That thought warms me—the messy room, not so much.

Scrapbook of Secrets: Having traded in her career as a successful investigative journalist for the life of a stay-at-home mum in picturesque Cumberland Creek, Virginia, Annie can't help but feel that something's missing. But she finds solace in a local "crop circle" of scrapbookers united by chore-shy husbands, demanding children, and occasional fantasies of their former single lives. And when the quiet idyll of their small town is shattered by a young mother's suicide, they band together to find out what went wrong...Annie resurrects her reporting skills and discovers that Maggie Rae was a closet scrapbooker who left behind more than a few secrets - and perhaps a few enemies. As they sift through Maggie Rae's mysteriously discarded scrapbooks, Annie and her "crop" sisters begin to suspect that her suicide may have been murder. It seems that something sinister is lurking beneath the town's beguilingly calm facade - like a killer with unfinished business...

scrapbooking kit giveaway

Thanks for joining us today, Mollie! Readers, have you ever done any scrapbooking? Ever wanted to? Let’s hear from you. Post a comment to be entered in the drawing for Mollie’s giveaway. -- AP

25 comments:

I love to scrapbook. Usually I scrapbook when I have an unlimited amount of time, so vacations are best for me. I scrapbook the big events of my life like our wedding and now the birth of our baby. Thanks for the book drawing. cynthiakchow (at) earthlink(dot) net

Your book's plot sounds like a very interesting premise.My wife and daughter have done a lot of scrapbooking and card-making, among many other creative endeavors.I'd love to win that kit to give my wife.

Thanks for all the kind remarks about my book--and for ordering it Janet. Woo-hoo!Yes, @wfnren, scrapbooking has changed a lot over the years. but one of the great things about it is the variety. You can still get the old-fashioned scrapbooks and do it that way. I confess that I have several of those myself. Today, some scrapbooks just do digital. So it really runs quite a gambit. Thanks everybody!

Scrapbooking always was appealing to me. When I was young I always had a scrapbook which was a treasure for me. It contained memories from vacations, live performances and important events. Your book sounds fascinating.

@Kathy yep, scrapping is great for keeping those vacation memories. @Track Potato lady, this book is VERY Virginia. ;-) And @boots9k, it is fun and I'm glad you enjoy it. Thanks so much for commenting!

I keep picking materials up when they're on sale and in my mind I know what I want to do but have only make a few cards and NO scrapbooks.Loved this post and will check out your website, MollieJust got Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun.would you enter me in the drawing?thanks,Babs

I have Scrapbooked for many years, as Another of my many creative penchants/hobbies, for gifts and for 'business' - I was blessed to even have been the Personal Archival Preservationist (Professional Scrapbooker) for a famous Celebrity Family for the past 2 1/2 years! Quite an eye-opening experience, but mostly enjoyable... I continue to Scrapbook, have been a Guest Designer on a few sites, teach, make Altered Items and share them all on my FB and Blog - I am working on setting up a website, also. Thanks for the opportunity/chance to win this book! ;-}Lyndenhttp://aneleganttouch-lynden.blogspot.comhttps://www.facebook.com/pages/An-Elegant-Touch-/162889457132788

I put my first scrapbook together when I was still in grade school. It was just pictures in a simple album, but that must be where it all started. I really enjoy the whole exercise of organizing photos and then choosing and putting together that special page or series of pages. I don't get to do it nearly enough, but your post has given me the motivation to make time for one of my favorite activities. (and I'm looking forward to reading your new book, too!)

Newsletter

Keep up with Lois and Anastasia by subscribing to author Lois Winston's newsletter where you'll find special features, contests, and giveaways available only to subscribers.

SCRAPBOOK OF MURDER

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 6

SLEUTHING WOMEN II: 10 MYSTERY NOVELLAS

LITERALLY DEAD: an Empty Nest Mystery, Book 2

SLEUTHING WOMEN: 10 FIRST-IN-SERIES MYSTERIES

A collection of 10 full-length mysteries featuring murder and assorted mayhem, each the first book in an established multi-book series

A STITCH TO DIE FOR

Book 5 in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series

MOM SQUAD: a Shadow Ops Novella

WE'D RATHER BE WRITING

BAKE, LOVE, WRITE

DEFINITELY DEAD

An Empty Nest Mystery, Book 1

CRAFTY CRIMES

a Trio of Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mini-Mysteries

PATCHWORK PERIL

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mini-Mystery

DECOUPAGE CAN BE DEADLY

MOSAIC MAYHEM

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mini-Mystery

REVENGE OF THE CRAFTY CORPSE

CREWEL INTENTIONS

an Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mini-Mystery

DEATH BY KILLER MOP DOLL

ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY GLUE GUN

THE ANASTASIA POLLACK CRAFTING MYSTERIES

Read about Anastasia in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery seriesby Lois Winston. Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in the series, received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist. Kirkus Reviews called it "North Jersey's more mature answer to Stephanie Plum." Assault With a Deadly Glue Gunwas also a Book of the Year Award nominee from ForeWord Reviews, a Daphne du Maurier Award finalist, and a Readers Choice Award nominee from the Salt Lake City Library System. Other books in the series include Death by Killer Mop Doll, Revenge of the Crafty Corpse, Decoupage Can Be Deadly, A Stitch to Die For, and Scrapbook of Murder, plus three mini-mysteries: Crewel Intentions,Mosaic Mayhem, and Patchwork Peril. Look for more of Anastasia's adventures coming in the future.

About Me

I'm the crafts editor at American Woman magazine; the single parent of two teenage boys and a Shakespeare quoting parrot; caretaker to a semi-invalid, communist mother-in-law from Hell and her demon dog; daughter to a multi-married descendant of the Czars (supposedly); reluctant cat-sitter to Mama's extremely corpulent white Persian cat; a born Jersey girl; and star of my own amateur sleuth mystery series.